By Jerome Solomon |
November 22, 2008

With three up, seven down and a miracle run away from anything meaningful this season, we’re allowed to spend some time talking about the Texans’ tomorrow.

Not just Sunday when they travel to Cleveland hoping to prove they still have a pulse (clear!), but the future, when they hope to be among the league’s best.

The Texans’ road to respectability is about to become more difficult.

A love affair cut short?

As unsure as we are of whether their current road map soon will get them out of mediocrity (if they are even there yet), we are just as sure that reaching said destination will be more difficult without Dunta Robinson on the roster.

Robinson is returning to the starting lineup for the first time since suffering a nasty injury in Oakland more than a year ago, but logic says he’ll be leaving the Texans after the season.

Texans fans have about six weeks to enjoy watching the toughest player to ever don the Deep Steel Blue and Battle Red.

His teammates love him.

The fans love him.

The Texans love him, and need him.

Importance undeniable

“This team needs that guy out there making plays, and his energy on the field, for us to be successful,” coach Gary Kubiak said. “This organization needs him to step forward and seeing him take over his old role is going to be important. It’s very important.”

And we know Robinson loves Houston and the Texans.

“I don’t want to finish my career with another team,” Robinson said.

But when it comes to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he will consider his options. When he does …

Five years as a Texan probably has taken a disproportionate number of years off his football life.

As a free agent at the end of the season, Robinson will be offered liberty that NFL players must explore.

As for happiness, Robinson is happier to be a Houstonian than is he to be a Texan. He plays to win games and the Texans don’t win enough games.

He calls it frustration. When he decides on his future this offseason, he might more accurately describe the feeling as disgust.

Who could blame him? Isn’t that the feeling many Texans fans have about some of the sad moves their favorite franchise has made?

Like all of the ultra-competitive set, Robinson is exalted by victory and crushed by defeat. When you see him in the locker room after a Texans loss, it’s as if the air has been sucked out of him. That wears on a person.

More cons than pros

At some point, Robinson is going to say enough is enough. That point is likely to be when others — teams which have had winning seasons, playoffs runs, championships — come calling on the hard-hitting cornerback with the heart of a champion and the leadership skills to match.

When Robinson sits down to do a pros-and-cons list on whether he should stay, the pros might fit on the inside of a matchbook cover, while the cons could roll off like a scroll of the Harris County Jail roster.

The Texans could have negotiated a new deal with Robinson after he earned his keep with three years of very solid play as the team’s best defender and an up-and-coming league talent.

Instead, they waited.

Well, after Robinson had his hamstring literally stripped off the bone and tore both the anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in his left leg, there was a quiet sigh of relief in the front office that Robinson hadn’t already been given a whopping signing bonus.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda

Sounds cold, but that’s the football business. That doesn’t make Bob McNair cheap; it makes him an NFL owner.

The Texans should have locked Robinson up before the injury.

As a rule, you don’t regularly extend a guy’s contract with two years remaining, but you make exceptions for your best two or three players — guys you can’t replace.

Dunta Robinson should have been an exception.

Waiting until the final year of a player’s contract before negotiating the next deal often works.

It worked this time for the Texans, too, in a way — Robinson got hurt.

With Robinson injured and not expected to return until midseason and understandable doubts that he would return at all, they drafted Antwaun Molden in the third round and made a generous donation to free agent Jacques Reeves.

Well, Molden can’t yet run with the defense and worse, Reeves can’t hide from opponents’ offenses.

The post-injury Robinson might never be worth what the Texans should have given him before he was hurt, but knowing his diagnosis, and his heart, they should have tried to work up an incentive-laden deal this past offseason.

What is he worth now?

Even ailing, he’s the best

He is not even 100 percent yet, but he is back. He is the Texans’ best corner.

He would be their best corner next season, too.

Why haven’t the Texans made a move to try to avoid bidding for his services against the rest of the league?

Perhaps they think Reeves … sorry, no need to even throw that in there.

Perhaps there is a fear of going to McNair to ask for cash when the wheels are falling off.

That would be like a teenager asking for an advance on his allowance while he is grounded.